Christmas was a very quiet affair here, there wasn't any family coming up and we didn't have anything we had to get done so we cooked a (rather large) ham and it was just another day. It was made wonderful, however, by spending the day with my boarder and her family. She was feeding Christmas morning despite my repeated offers to feed on Christmas so she could spend it with her family. Her response was being away from them was her present to herself. Ha!
She came over and had fed the horses by the time I ran out and asked if she would like some breakfast. She accepted and SO, the boarder and I chatted about nothing and everything for about 4 hours. It was really nice to just relax and chat, it has been so long since we have had a true lull in activities around here. About 2p we went back outside and finished cleaning stalls. It was finally time, however, and I stripped the TWH's stall of the last of the newspaper bedding and, while I was at it decided to cut his stall mats down. Since the previous owners of this place created stalls that are not the same size, none of the mats fit correctly. For a year I have been dealing with overlapping mats and decided I was fixing them. When I put the pellets in the App's stall I cut down his mats and decided to take the opportunity of time to do it to the TWH's stall as well.
It took a bit over an hour to cut the mats down as we had 3 cuts to make and they are thick mats. All we had was a utility knife, rubber gloves and determination but despite nauseating under-mat urine smell and 30 degree temps we got it done. I am happy to announce that all of my stalls are now actually level! No more overlapping stall mats that require being rolled back and cleaned under on a weekly basis. I now also have a bunch of 4 to 8 foot strips of rubber matting to use where ever I see fit. Not a bad end result IMO. I also no longer have any newspaper bedding and I am glad to see it go.
I put 7 bags of pellets in TWH's stall and expanded it in the stall instead of the wheelbarrow. Unfortunately with the colder temperature it was really hard to expand the pellets and they didn't expand very well at all. Two days later there are still about 25% of the pellets that are compressed that I have to sift through but I am working through it. After a couple of days, however, the stall does look really nice. 7 bags is a bit much for his stall but I am going to try to maintain this level. I am going to compare how the TWH's stall maintains with a large amount of bedding versus the App's stall with a "normal" to skimpy amount of bedding.
In cleaning the TWH's stall, his wet spot is SO much smaller with this new bedding and it takes so much less time to clean. I was spending 20-30 minutes cleaning the TWH's or App's stall with the newspaper bedding. Today I cleaned the the App's stall in 8 minutes and the TWH's stall in 7 minutes. 7 MINUTES! I started cleaning stalls at 7:10a this morning and cleaned all 4 stalls by 7:35a. It only took me 25 minutes to clean stalls, it is almost dreamlike it is so awesome. I am very, very happy with this bedding. I do cringe every time I have to open a bag of pellets but the time saving looks like it is going to be a great compromise. I am going to put yet another bag of pellets in the App's stall to get it to a level I like, the App is being very "wet" and is ends up with a huge wet spot every morning. I hope that with enough bedding maybe I won't go through as much? We will see, overall however I am giving this pelleted bedding two huge thumbs up!
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Final decision - bedding
I have been using the pelleted pine bedding for a month now and have been sold. As much as I didn't want to like them, I like them. I like them a lot. I like they are super easy to sift, I like they are super easy to store, I like that they are super easy to prepare for use and I like that it only takes 10 mins to clean the App's stall.
I have been slowly using up the newspaper bedding in the TWH's stall, I have really come to dread having to clean his stall. It takes forever, in comparison, and it is still messy. In using the paper bedding up I wanted to have a pretty clear idea on which option I wanted to go with the bedding. I have been mentally comparing the bulk bedding in the donkey's stall to the pelleted bedding and I have made up my mind, pellets is the way to go. Yes they are more expensive but the time and effort savings seems to be worth it. I am only using a bag a week in the App's stall and a bag every week and a half to two weeks in the pony's stall. That is better than the 2 bags a week I had originally calculated and makes the cost difference to bulk bedding much smaller.
I like that it is easy to put in the stalls. No more taking an hour or more (and a pretty physically demanding hour) to fill a wagon and then empty said wagon in the different stalls, making up to 3 trips in a day. To expand a bag of pellets I simply open a 40lb bag into a wheelbarrow and put a gallon and a half of water over the pellets and let them sit while I clean a stall. After I clean one stall I take the stall fork and turn the pellets over, at this point about a third of the pellets have expanded. I clean a second stall and repeat and most pellets have expanded. I then add about another half gallon by sprinkling the pellets and fluffing and let it sit while I clean the third stall. By the time I am done with the third stall I dump the wheelbarrow of pellets in a stall and call it a day. At this point 80% of the pellets have expanded and the rest break down by having a horse walk on them. If desired you can sprinkle the pellets again in the stall to finish the expansion of the last of the pellets. It takes no more than 5 mins of effort when I incorporate it into stall cleaning. If I used warm water or it was warm out then the expansion process should take significantly less time but alas it is cold out already.
The only concern I have is expanding the pellets when it gets really cold and doesn't come above freezing. Technically I could bring the wheelbarrow into the garage while it sits during the cold periods or I could bring out hot water and then it should expand before it froze. Not sure how this will work, it will take some trial and error I am sure. All in all though, I do really like the pelleted bedding and am going to go this route. I hope I was able to help anyone else going through a bedding ordeal!
I have been slowly using up the newspaper bedding in the TWH's stall, I have really come to dread having to clean his stall. It takes forever, in comparison, and it is still messy. In using the paper bedding up I wanted to have a pretty clear idea on which option I wanted to go with the bedding. I have been mentally comparing the bulk bedding in the donkey's stall to the pelleted bedding and I have made up my mind, pellets is the way to go. Yes they are more expensive but the time and effort savings seems to be worth it. I am only using a bag a week in the App's stall and a bag every week and a half to two weeks in the pony's stall. That is better than the 2 bags a week I had originally calculated and makes the cost difference to bulk bedding much smaller.
I like that it is easy to put in the stalls. No more taking an hour or more (and a pretty physically demanding hour) to fill a wagon and then empty said wagon in the different stalls, making up to 3 trips in a day. To expand a bag of pellets I simply open a 40lb bag into a wheelbarrow and put a gallon and a half of water over the pellets and let them sit while I clean a stall. After I clean one stall I take the stall fork and turn the pellets over, at this point about a third of the pellets have expanded. I clean a second stall and repeat and most pellets have expanded. I then add about another half gallon by sprinkling the pellets and fluffing and let it sit while I clean the third stall. By the time I am done with the third stall I dump the wheelbarrow of pellets in a stall and call it a day. At this point 80% of the pellets have expanded and the rest break down by having a horse walk on them. If desired you can sprinkle the pellets again in the stall to finish the expansion of the last of the pellets. It takes no more than 5 mins of effort when I incorporate it into stall cleaning. If I used warm water or it was warm out then the expansion process should take significantly less time but alas it is cold out already.
The only concern I have is expanding the pellets when it gets really cold and doesn't come above freezing. Technically I could bring the wheelbarrow into the garage while it sits during the cold periods or I could bring out hot water and then it should expand before it froze. Not sure how this will work, it will take some trial and error I am sure. All in all though, I do really like the pelleted bedding and am going to go this route. I hope I was able to help anyone else going through a bedding ordeal!
Friday, November 18, 2011
The bedding dilemma again - A new review
I am almost out of the newspaper bedding already, thank goodness though as the more I use it the more I can't wait for it to be gone. I have gotten extremely annoyed at having to clean the App's stall for a minimum of 25 mins. I am tired of starting to clean stalls at 7:05a and not finishing until a little after 8:00a. I used to clean at 7:10a-7:15a and be done between 7:45a - 7:50a, I want those days back.
I have searched high and low for bedding options without any new options. The only bulk bedding options around are 3 options. Option 1 is a guy that makes mulch and sells stuff on the side, he is local and decently priced however his product is horrible. It is wood chards, many pretty sharp, mixed in with super fine wood dust. I used a 6 yard load when I first moved to MI and hated it, I went and looked at it in Oct and the stuff hasn't changed. You can buy either the wood shards, a mix of chards and dust or just the dust. If the dust was a little more wood-chippy then it would work well but unfortunately it isn't so that guy is off the list. Option 2 is a 100 yard load of wood chips, it sounds like what I want however I have no place to store 100 yards (semi trailer load) of material and they don't sell it in smaller quantities so he is out. Option 3 is the guy I used last year, he is a 1.5 hour drive away and is pretty expensive with his price increase this year. I am keeping him as a backup and will just suck up the price increase if I have to.
I have found several wood flake/shaving suppliers which aren't too badly priced but I am not really wanting wood flakes/shavings. It is another option that I will do if I need to but would rather not. It would be easier to store than bulk bedding but the for the price it would be cheaper to do the bulk bedding. I also looked high and low for a corn cob bedding supplier which is what the boarder really wanted to use. Unfortunately the only supplier I have found is TSC and at $7 a bag it is certainly not economically feasible. Thus I turned to wood pellet bedding, something that came recommended by several people. I have called over a dozen suppliers trying to find the best price and it seems it is $5.50 per bag if you buy a pallet of them. That ends up being 3x the cost of bulk bedding but I wanted to try it out after hearing some of the rave reviews so I bought some for the boarders stall.
I put 6 bags in the stall and expanded it and it filled the stall...just okay. I thought it could have used another bag or two but the boarder said to let it be, if in a couple of days I felt the same then I could do it but to leave it for the night. I am glad I did, after the pony walked on it and it finished expanding those 6 bags lasted me 2 full weeks before I had to add one new bag of bedding. It has made stall cleaning for him a breeze, I can clean his stall in about 5 mins! It requires virtually no sifting as the bedding falls out when you pick up the poo. It isn't dusty either, something I was afraid due to the particle size. The wet spots are easy to see as they are darker and come out pretty easily. The wet spot sticks together pretty well so you can remove about 80% of the wet spot in one swoop after you move the dry bedding away from it. Then you simply rake the rest of the wet/dark into a pile and scoop and out it goes. Pretty easy and definitely easier than bulk bedding.
I have been extremely impressed with the product and, as a result, am going to try putting the boys on it despite the price increase. I want to see if I will use as much as they say I will, 1-2 bags a week per stall at $5.50 a bag adds up fast. So far I am not using as much as expected with the pony's stall so I can only hope. It is also easier to store than bulk, easier to move than bulk and is delivered whenever I need so I went ahead and ordered it and it should be here this weekend. I will do a follow up on it, I will put the App on it next and am very curious how it handles with a horse that isn't as neat of a stall keeper. A side note if you are interested in pelleted bedding, I have had several people warn me away from Equine Fresh which is sold at TSC. I have been told it doesn't break down/expand as well, it gets dark much, much faster and it doesn't work as well as other brands. I am using Wayne Davis which is a Michigan made brand and have heard Guardian is a very highly regarded brand. Here's to hoping it continues to work this well!
I have searched high and low for bedding options without any new options. The only bulk bedding options around are 3 options. Option 1 is a guy that makes mulch and sells stuff on the side, he is local and decently priced however his product is horrible. It is wood chards, many pretty sharp, mixed in with super fine wood dust. I used a 6 yard load when I first moved to MI and hated it, I went and looked at it in Oct and the stuff hasn't changed. You can buy either the wood shards, a mix of chards and dust or just the dust. If the dust was a little more wood-chippy then it would work well but unfortunately it isn't so that guy is off the list. Option 2 is a 100 yard load of wood chips, it sounds like what I want however I have no place to store 100 yards (semi trailer load) of material and they don't sell it in smaller quantities so he is out. Option 3 is the guy I used last year, he is a 1.5 hour drive away and is pretty expensive with his price increase this year. I am keeping him as a backup and will just suck up the price increase if I have to.
I have found several wood flake/shaving suppliers which aren't too badly priced but I am not really wanting wood flakes/shavings. It is another option that I will do if I need to but would rather not. It would be easier to store than bulk bedding but the for the price it would be cheaper to do the bulk bedding. I also looked high and low for a corn cob bedding supplier which is what the boarder really wanted to use. Unfortunately the only supplier I have found is TSC and at $7 a bag it is certainly not economically feasible. Thus I turned to wood pellet bedding, something that came recommended by several people. I have called over a dozen suppliers trying to find the best price and it seems it is $5.50 per bag if you buy a pallet of them. That ends up being 3x the cost of bulk bedding but I wanted to try it out after hearing some of the rave reviews so I bought some for the boarders stall.
I put 6 bags in the stall and expanded it and it filled the stall...just okay. I thought it could have used another bag or two but the boarder said to let it be, if in a couple of days I felt the same then I could do it but to leave it for the night. I am glad I did, after the pony walked on it and it finished expanding those 6 bags lasted me 2 full weeks before I had to add one new bag of bedding. It has made stall cleaning for him a breeze, I can clean his stall in about 5 mins! It requires virtually no sifting as the bedding falls out when you pick up the poo. It isn't dusty either, something I was afraid due to the particle size. The wet spots are easy to see as they are darker and come out pretty easily. The wet spot sticks together pretty well so you can remove about 80% of the wet spot in one swoop after you move the dry bedding away from it. Then you simply rake the rest of the wet/dark into a pile and scoop and out it goes. Pretty easy and definitely easier than bulk bedding.
I have been extremely impressed with the product and, as a result, am going to try putting the boys on it despite the price increase. I want to see if I will use as much as they say I will, 1-2 bags a week per stall at $5.50 a bag adds up fast. So far I am not using as much as expected with the pony's stall so I can only hope. It is also easier to store than bulk, easier to move than bulk and is delivered whenever I need so I went ahead and ordered it and it should be here this weekend. I will do a follow up on it, I will put the App on it next and am very curious how it handles with a horse that isn't as neat of a stall keeper. A side note if you are interested in pelleted bedding, I have had several people warn me away from Equine Fresh which is sold at TSC. I have been told it doesn't break down/expand as well, it gets dark much, much faster and it doesn't work as well as other brands. I am using Wayne Davis which is a Michigan made brand and have heard Guardian is a very highly regarded brand. Here's to hoping it continues to work this well!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Bedding options - fence sitting
I am still undecided what to do about the bedding situation, if money was no object I would go the pellet route and just find a new home for the rest of the newspaper bedding. Unfortunately money is an object, one I like to have around and thus I am still undecided. Pellets are a 33% increase in cost over the already 43% increase of the bulk bedding. UGH!
I really needed bedding in the boarder stall so instead of switching him over to the newspaper I bought some pellets to try out. I've never used pellets and wanted to try them before committing to a pallet of them. I stripped the boarder stall and put the bedding in the donkey's stall (reuse what I can!), she now has enough bedding for at least a month if not two. Ha! The boarder stall is a 12x10 so I put in 6 bags of pellets to start. I will admit, I was doubtful when I started. The pellets didn't swell up nearly as much as I expected and I wondered if I should have used the 2 extra bags I had bought. The boarder, who has been on pellets before, said to let it stay and if I change my mind in a few days then I could add the other bags. Am pretty glad I waited, the stall looks pretty nice now. In a perfect world it would be bedded a bit heavier but this is still a trial and the pellets have broken down nicely.
The plus side for pellets?
Pellets are easier to store, I would have the room in my indoor back
Pellets seem to be less dusty, virtually no dust so far.
Pellets are certainly super duper easy to clean, at least so far.
Pellets can be bought locally and delivered for only $10
The down side for pellets?
Cost
The plus side for bulk bedding?
Comfortable and easy to use
Easy to clean
Easy to store
The down side for bulk bedding?
Takes up a lot of space in my indoor
Can be dusty, not bad, but not dust free
Heavy, pain to move each week
Have to buy from over an hour away, not local
I will keep using what I currently have and try to figure out what to do, I have about 3 weeks before I have to make a decision.
I really needed bedding in the boarder stall so instead of switching him over to the newspaper I bought some pellets to try out. I've never used pellets and wanted to try them before committing to a pallet of them. I stripped the boarder stall and put the bedding in the donkey's stall (reuse what I can!), she now has enough bedding for at least a month if not two. Ha! The boarder stall is a 12x10 so I put in 6 bags of pellets to start. I will admit, I was doubtful when I started. The pellets didn't swell up nearly as much as I expected and I wondered if I should have used the 2 extra bags I had bought. The boarder, who has been on pellets before, said to let it stay and if I change my mind in a few days then I could add the other bags. Am pretty glad I waited, the stall looks pretty nice now. In a perfect world it would be bedded a bit heavier but this is still a trial and the pellets have broken down nicely.
The plus side for pellets?
Pellets are easier to store, I would have the room in my indoor back
Pellets seem to be less dusty, virtually no dust so far.
Pellets are certainly super duper easy to clean, at least so far.
Pellets can be bought locally and delivered for only $10
The down side for pellets?
Cost
The plus side for bulk bedding?
Comfortable and easy to use
Easy to clean
Easy to store
The down side for bulk bedding?
Takes up a lot of space in my indoor
Can be dusty, not bad, but not dust free
Heavy, pain to move each week
Have to buy from over an hour away, not local
I will keep using what I currently have and try to figure out what to do, I have about 3 weeks before I have to make a decision.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A change of heart on bedding
I really like the newspaper. I really do. I like that it is really light and is super easy to store and to move. I like that it doesn't have much to any dust and that it makes the stalls look clean (since poo is hiding under fluff). I like that I am throwing away less in volume every day.
However.
I don't like that it takes an extra 10 mins per stall to clean. I don't like that it makes my dirt aisle look littered and even with a FineTine fork I can't pick it up. I don't like that I have to use so much of it. And I don't like that I am using significantly more of it than I was of woodchips.
Last weekend I needed to do the weekly bedding fill for the stalls. The bale I have is supposed to be approximately 14 compressed yards so I expected the bale to last me about 2.5 months for the 4 stalls as I used apx 4-5 yards a month with woodchips. Imagine my surprise and disgust when I realized I am halfway through the bale already. And I am only using it in 2 stalls AND it hasn't even been an actual month! I bought the bedding on 9/28 and put it in Chip's stall on 10/1. I then put it in Sinatra's stall on 10/8. That is approximately 37 days (22 days for Chip, 15 days for Sinatra) of bedding and am already halfway through the bale. I don't even want to know how fast I would be using this if I had it in all 4 stalls, would it even last 2 months?!? I don't think it would considering I think it will be gone within the 2 months on just the 2 boy's stalls. Ugh!
This brings me back to the drawing board. I am eliminating the newspaper bedding, it is not worth the extra effort each day nor is it cost effective like I thought. Even if I calculate the 43% increase of the woodchips it would be cheaper per month than using this even though the cost per yard is lower. I am pretty bummed as I really wanted this to work and it isn't. Ugh.
I haven't been able to find a supplier for corn cob bedding which my boarder is really pushing for, it is what she used when she lived in NY. The pelleted shavings sounds ok but expensive. 1 bag = apx 4 cu ft expanded which isn't a lot. I would need 270 bags of pellets to equal 40 cu yards of bulk woodchips. Even with the bulk shavings increase it would be 35% more expensive yard-to-yard to use pellets and that is using the cheapest quote I got for pellets. I have only found two other suppliers for bulk shavings and one currently only delivers 100 yard loads, he is going to try to find a price on a 40 yard load for me. The other delivers literal sawdust, dusty, fine, powdery sawdust and I used it when I first moved here. Not again. Ugh, why is this so difficult?! What do other people use? Anyone use pellets? Is it really as expensive as it sounds on paper? Do the shavings really dry almost immediately after being dampened for expansion so you don't have a wet stall?
However.
I don't like that it takes an extra 10 mins per stall to clean. I don't like that it makes my dirt aisle look littered and even with a FineTine fork I can't pick it up. I don't like that I have to use so much of it. And I don't like that I am using significantly more of it than I was of woodchips.
Last weekend I needed to do the weekly bedding fill for the stalls. The bale I have is supposed to be approximately 14 compressed yards so I expected the bale to last me about 2.5 months for the 4 stalls as I used apx 4-5 yards a month with woodchips. Imagine my surprise and disgust when I realized I am halfway through the bale already. And I am only using it in 2 stalls AND it hasn't even been an actual month! I bought the bedding on 9/28 and put it in Chip's stall on 10/1. I then put it in Sinatra's stall on 10/8. That is approximately 37 days (22 days for Chip, 15 days for Sinatra) of bedding and am already halfway through the bale. I don't even want to know how fast I would be using this if I had it in all 4 stalls, would it even last 2 months?!? I don't think it would considering I think it will be gone within the 2 months on just the 2 boy's stalls. Ugh!
This brings me back to the drawing board. I am eliminating the newspaper bedding, it is not worth the extra effort each day nor is it cost effective like I thought. Even if I calculate the 43% increase of the woodchips it would be cheaper per month than using this even though the cost per yard is lower. I am pretty bummed as I really wanted this to work and it isn't. Ugh.
I haven't been able to find a supplier for corn cob bedding which my boarder is really pushing for, it is what she used when she lived in NY. The pelleted shavings sounds ok but expensive. 1 bag = apx 4 cu ft expanded which isn't a lot. I would need 270 bags of pellets to equal 40 cu yards of bulk woodchips. Even with the bulk shavings increase it would be 35% more expensive yard-to-yard to use pellets and that is using the cheapest quote I got for pellets. I have only found two other suppliers for bulk shavings and one currently only delivers 100 yard loads, he is going to try to find a price on a 40 yard load for me. The other delivers literal sawdust, dusty, fine, powdery sawdust and I used it when I first moved here. Not again. Ugh, why is this so difficult?! What do other people use? Anyone use pellets? Is it really as expensive as it sounds on paper? Do the shavings really dry almost immediately after being dampened for expansion so you don't have a wet stall?
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Newspaper bedding review
The most insane part of the month is finally over, my mother has left and I have returned from the Congress. Gearing up for visitors this weekend and then things look to take a serious slow down, I am actually looking forward to it! Maybe not for all winter but some slowness for a few weeks will be really nice.
I figured I would give my review of the new bedding since I had so many people interested. I am amazed and excited that I had people comment on it! It has been a couple of weeks now and I have both Chip and Sinatra on it and I finally have a fairly solid opinion.
What it is: recycled newspaper (not magazines/books) that has been chopped into approximately 1/2 inch squares. It comes in 2 forms, bagged or bulk. Bags are currently sold at Tractor Supply by a local company that makes the product or the company sells it bulk via a 6' long, 4' wide, 30" high "bale". The bag is compressed and is the size of sawdust bags and expands to approximately 12 cu ft, the bale is compressed and expands to approximately 14 cu yds. It is cheaper to purchase it by the bale, TSC sells the bag for $.25 a pound and the bale is $.17 a pound delivered and comes in a 800-950 pound bale. My bale cost $135 delivered.
My initial concerns of this bedding were:
Layers and layers of wet newspaper. Paper gets wet easily and then sticks to everything
Heavy wet newspaper. I have cleaned animal cages lined with newspaper and hated it.
Smell. Wet newspaper always tends to smell
Everything staying wet. When you clean something lined with newspaper or spill something on newspaper, it never absorbs everything.
Messy. Tiny little pieces of newspaper flying everywhere as I try moving it to a stall. Or blowing out of a stall
The guy who delivered it recommended stripping the stall before I use it as to not mix bedding, while you could mix the bedding it is more efficient to not plus it would give me an idea of how it truly performs. Since I am all about efficiency, Chip's stall was stripped and all of his bedding went into Sinatra's stall. I put 40 cu ft of expanded newspaper in his stall, it looked pretty deep and was sufficient for what I wanted. The next day the stall looked clean. Things were pretty compacted down however it fluffed right back up after I tossed it in the air or sifted through it. One thing I quickly found is that the poo is quickly covered by the newspaper fluff so you can't see it. This is why the stall looks clean, the heavy poo falls to the floor and the fluffy stuff envelops it. Think whipped cream and throwing a strawberry in it.
Cleaning stalls does now require a different skill set, sifting doesn't work well with this product. It requires a combination of tossing and shaking to get all of the fluffy bedding out and find the heavy poo. I am taking a half scoop and lightly tossing to see if I feel the clunk/heaviness of poo. If so then I toss and shake until I find the poo. If not then I toss the bedding a little to fluff it up and put it in a "clean" pile. A bad thing I can say is that you have to go through ALL bedding to find the poo because you can't see most of it. After finding the bedding I scrape the fluffy stuff off of the wet spot and then scrape up the wet newspaper. The wet spot does clump together making it pretty easy to scoop up.
The good?
This bedding is amazingly light and virtually weightless, that makes it extremely easy to sift through and toss.
Also makes it extremely easy to get more bedding as I can fill a wheelbarrow and a full wheelbarrow is effortless to push.
I can "peel" off layers of compacted bedding to bring back to the stalls and fluff it in the stall to eliminate multiple trips. It only took 1.5 trips of compacted bedding in the 10 cu ft wheelbarrow to completely fill Sinatra's stall vs 4 trips of fluffed bedding for Chip's stall.
The stall almost always looks clean (when plenty of bedding is in the stall. Do not let this bedding get low, it gets messy from the wet spots).
The newspaper is easy to sift out and when you toss the poo, any clean newspaper will flutter away before going in the wheelbarrow. This saves on bedding and eliminates waste
The newspaper clumps in the wet spot, making it easy to get rid of and not wasting a bunch of dry bedding finding the edges.
The clumps have an odor but takes the odor with it and the stall is smell-free after being cleaned.
I am using less of the product OR the product I am using is taking up less space in the wheelbarrow. Undecided on which is true yet.
The bad?
It looks messy. While there is always sawdust on the ground, it is kinda tan and the dirt is kinda tan so it isn't very noticeable. This stuff is white and the dirt is kinda tan so it sticks out pretty badly making it always look messy even when it really isn't.
You have to sift the entire stall to find the poo which does increase my cleaning times
If the horse likes to wee in small doses in multiple spots, you do have to take more bedding than expected. If damp bedding is left it gets the entire stall really messy pretty quickly,. This is an issue with Chip, my Mr Pee's A Lot stall is much, much better on this bedding.
You have to keep a lot of bedding in the stall, allowing it to run low will make things go bad quickly. If all of the wet bedding isn't taken out it won't fluff or toss and gets messy.
You have to learn a new way to clean stalls to match the newspaper, it doesn't sift the same as wood.
All in all I think I like the product and will likely get another bale and transfer everyone over. If nothing else it is a good bit cheaper than wood chips, I would be buying locally, it is 100% green as it is recycled newspaper that will decompose significantly faster than wood chips, it requires significantly less space to store and it is super light to handle and compact to store.
I am working on ways to make the cons be better, I am getting better at cleaning so it is taking slightly less time. I am still experimenting with Chip to try to find the best way to manage him and his wet spot habits, I throw more away due to him by far. I am now leaving a 3-4 foot bedding-free spot in front of everyone's stall to help eliminate them kicking it out of their stalls, Sinatra is especially bad about doing this. We will see how it goes. Picture time!
I figured I would give my review of the new bedding since I had so many people interested. I am amazed and excited that I had people comment on it! It has been a couple of weeks now and I have both Chip and Sinatra on it and I finally have a fairly solid opinion.
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| Newspaper bedding in a stall |
My initial concerns of this bedding were:
Layers and layers of wet newspaper. Paper gets wet easily and then sticks to everything
Heavy wet newspaper. I have cleaned animal cages lined with newspaper and hated it.
Smell. Wet newspaper always tends to smell
Everything staying wet. When you clean something lined with newspaper or spill something on newspaper, it never absorbs everything.
Messy. Tiny little pieces of newspaper flying everywhere as I try moving it to a stall. Or blowing out of a stall
The guy who delivered it recommended stripping the stall before I use it as to not mix bedding, while you could mix the bedding it is more efficient to not plus it would give me an idea of how it truly performs. Since I am all about efficiency, Chip's stall was stripped and all of his bedding went into Sinatra's stall. I put 40 cu ft of expanded newspaper in his stall, it looked pretty deep and was sufficient for what I wanted. The next day the stall looked clean. Things were pretty compacted down however it fluffed right back up after I tossed it in the air or sifted through it. One thing I quickly found is that the poo is quickly covered by the newspaper fluff so you can't see it. This is why the stall looks clean, the heavy poo falls to the floor and the fluffy stuff envelops it. Think whipped cream and throwing a strawberry in it.
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| Chip's stall |
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| Sinatra's stall |
This bedding is amazingly light and virtually weightless, that makes it extremely easy to sift through and toss.
Also makes it extremely easy to get more bedding as I can fill a wheelbarrow and a full wheelbarrow is effortless to push.
I can "peel" off layers of compacted bedding to bring back to the stalls and fluff it in the stall to eliminate multiple trips. It only took 1.5 trips of compacted bedding in the 10 cu ft wheelbarrow to completely fill Sinatra's stall vs 4 trips of fluffed bedding for Chip's stall.
The stall almost always looks clean (when plenty of bedding is in the stall. Do not let this bedding get low, it gets messy from the wet spots).
The newspaper is easy to sift out and when you toss the poo, any clean newspaper will flutter away before going in the wheelbarrow. This saves on bedding and eliminates waste
The newspaper clumps in the wet spot, making it easy to get rid of and not wasting a bunch of dry bedding finding the edges.
The clumps have an odor but takes the odor with it and the stall is smell-free after being cleaned.
I am using less of the product OR the product I am using is taking up less space in the wheelbarrow. Undecided on which is true yet.
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| Waste after 4 stalls. 4 stalls normally makes a full wheelbarrow |
It looks messy. While there is always sawdust on the ground, it is kinda tan and the dirt is kinda tan so it isn't very noticeable. This stuff is white and the dirt is kinda tan so it sticks out pretty badly making it always look messy even when it really isn't.
You have to sift the entire stall to find the poo which does increase my cleaning times
If the horse likes to wee in small doses in multiple spots, you do have to take more bedding than expected. If damp bedding is left it gets the entire stall really messy pretty quickly,. This is an issue with Chip, my Mr Pee's A Lot stall is much, much better on this bedding.
You have to keep a lot of bedding in the stall, allowing it to run low will make things go bad quickly. If all of the wet bedding isn't taken out it won't fluff or toss and gets messy.
You have to learn a new way to clean stalls to match the newspaper, it doesn't sift the same as wood.
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| Looks messy |
I am working on ways to make the cons be better, I am getting better at cleaning so it is taking slightly less time. I am still experimenting with Chip to try to find the best way to manage him and his wet spot habits, I throw more away due to him by far. I am now leaving a 3-4 foot bedding-free spot in front of everyone's stall to help eliminate them kicking it out of their stalls, Sinatra is especially bad about doing this. We will see how it goes. Picture time!
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